More pressure heaped on BBC chairman over loan row

Row over BBC chairman’s loan ‘leaving a bad smell’

- David Bond and Robert Dex

BBC chairman Richard Sharp was facing growing pressure to quit today as a former TV news chief said the storm was leaving a “bad smell” hanging over the corporation.

The remarks from former ITN chief executive Stewart Purvis came after a committee of MPs strongly criticised Mr Sharp for a “significant error of judgment” in failing to disclose his involvement in “the facilitation” of an £800,000 loan to Boris Johnson while he was PM.

Mr Purvis told LBC it was striking that the Government was not “standing up for Mr Sharp”. He added: “The issue is: is Richard Sharp now a credible, impartial chair of the BBC given what’s been revealed?

“To have a chairman of the BBC, who was involved to the extent that he now finally admits he was, I think it’s a bad look, it’s a bad smell.”

A spokesperson for Mr Sharp declined to comment on Mr Purvis’s remarks.

Mr Sharp has said he will not resign and his future may now depend on whether he retains the confidence of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak who has the ultimate power to hire and fire the chair of the corporation.